My research interests focus on the development of complex societies and inequality.  In particular, I am interested in using household archaeology to examine periods of cultural change and transition on the southern coast of Peru.   

As an undergraduate, I attended Cornell University, earning a bachelors degree in Anthropology in 2006.  Following graduation I had the opportunity to participate in the Rio Bravo Archaeological Survey (RBAS) directed by Dr. Stanley Walling, and examined the Late Classic Maya site of Chawak But’o’ob, located in northern Belize.   

From 2006 until 2007 I took as position as the Collections Database Manager of the Paleontological Research Institution in Ithaca, NY, where I gained valuable skills managing and curating the invertebrate type specimen collection, before coming to Purdue in 2007. 

In the summer of 2008 I worked on Proyecto Arqueologico Tuti Antiguo, directed by Dr. Steve Wernke, and excavated the Inka/Colonial site of Malata in the Colca Valley, Peru.  I also joined Matt Edwards on Proyecto Arqueologico Pataraya-Ayacucho, surveying the upper Aja Valley on the south coast of Peru.   

I am currently working on my masters thesis, which consists of a cross-cultural ethnographic study examining community ritual architecture.  My aim is to develop a series of architectural characteristics that are indicative of how inclusive the ritual practices conducted in the space are.  I will be analyzing a series of variables regarding ritual practices to test whether or not the architectural characteristics I have selected do indeed reflect the inclusivity of the practices themselves.